Us Planning Something In Fll

[enilria]

The Airliners forums are pointing out some interesting facts.

1) US Airways newly announced CLT-LIR service arrives after it departs indicating another LIR service point is unannounced. Why would they hold back PHL from release? They would only hide it if it was part of something bigger.

2) US and wholly owned affiliates quietly asked for DOT authority to 14 Central American and Caribbean countries in June and July (right after Spirit's announcement of their intentions for FLL) including places such as Panama and Haiti which would be really shocking from PHL or CLT. You can verify this on the DOT docket management website. Authority appears to have been granted in recent days. US Airways won authority for FLL-CUN as well.

3) The odd announcement of FLL-LGA makes more sense as part of this type of thing.

4) US asked for extended authority to code share with Bahamasair which has jet service to FLL.

It would appear US is going to try to beat Spirit to the punch on building a focus city to compete with Miami. It also makes sense for US to try this as it builds upon what they have admitted is the best part of the company profit-wise.

 

[ISP]

FLL-CUN is also loaded in the November schedule and there has been no offical press release yet.

 

[USAirUnited]

i was just going to mention FLL CUN....
its still running with the tag, "subject to GVT approval"

 

[CynicalResAgent]

This would require guile, proactive planning, forward thinking, and ingenuity.

 

[enilria]

I took the liberty of placing a call to a station manager for another airline in FLL and had a long conversation about how US Airways seems to be trying to acquire more gates than they could ever use.

Hmm...the plot thickens.

 

[StewGuy86]

Interesting, to say the least. Well, if it's true that US is trying to build FLL into some sort of focus city, then all I can say is I'm glad to see them actually DOING something to be proactive, instead of continuing to run from the competition and shrink.

 

[US1YFARE]

"Seth" will be in FLL in November.

 

[ITRADE]

It would take a lot of gates. American has close to 50 at MIA.

 

[enilria]

I guess the question is how many South points would they serve. That would dictate the gates:

1 GCM, 2 AUA. 3 SDQ, 4 MBJ, 5 CUN, 6 SJU, 7 BGI, 8 PTY, 9 LIR, 10 SJO, 11 SXM, 12 PLS, 13 BZE, 14 La Romana, 15 Punta Cana, 16 Grenada, 17 CCS, 18 STT.

Of course, would they fly daily to all of those? They could probably squeeze down to 12 gates or so if some of the flights are weekends only or alternate days of the week.

What would they fly northbound? RJs? Mainline? I'd guess the old MetroJet markets first: IAD/BWI/BDL/BOS/LGA (announced). Would they dare to fly CLE/DTW/ATL/EWR ? Then they could put RJs in BNA/RDU/BHM/MEM/ CMH/SDF/RIC/ORF/BUF. I'm guessing the whole deal is probably 25-30 more flights plus some turbos to MCO/TPA/JAX/EYW. They already have that stuff to Marsh Harbor/Treasure Cay/etc. I think they are also flying to Bermuda on weekends from FLL.

One more really crazy thought. We know they are working with Bahamasair...is it conceivabe that Spirit is involved in this rather than the enemy? I know I'm drifting toward delusions now. Maybe a code share with Spirit too?

 

[ringmaruf]

I guess the question is how many South points would they serve. That would dictate the gates:

1 GCM, 2 AUA. 3 SDQ, 4 MBJ, 5 CUN, 6 SJU, 7 BGI, 8 PTY, 9 LIR, 10 SJO, 11 SXM, 12 PLS, 13 BZE, 14 La Romana, 15 Punta Cana, 16 Grenada, 17 CCS, 18 STT.

Of course, would they fly daily to all of those? They could probably squeeze down to 12 gates or so if some of the flights are weekends only or alternate days of the week.

What would they fly northbound? RJs? Mainline? I'd guess the old MetroJet markets first: IAD/BWI/BDL/BOS/LGA (announced). Would they dare to fly CLE/DTW/ATL/EWR ? Then they could put RJs in BNA/RDU/BHM/MEM/ CMH/SDF/RIC/ORF/BUF. I'm guessing the whole deal is probably 25-30 more flights plus some turbos to MCO/TPA/JAX/EYW. They already have that stuff to Marsh Harbor/Treasure Cay/etc. I think they are also flying to Bermuda on weekends from FLL.

One more really crazy thought. We know they are working with Bahamasair...is it conceivabe that Spirit is involved in this rather than the enemy? I know I'm drifting toward delusions now. Maybe a code share with Spirit too?

I think your post is pretty damn close to exactly what might end up happening.

Except for the working with Spirit part.

 

[ITRADE]

Does FLL have a dedicated Customs/immigration terminal or is each terminal Customs-ready? And does US even have a customs access gate there?

 

[tadjr]

Some of those cities listed are preclear as well so you dont need an International arrival gate for them. You could also divide these into two banks of flights if you do have a gate problem. One southbound during the morning with a return the same day and another late in the evening overnighting in foreign country with a return to FLL early the next day. This would cut down on the number of INTL gates needed. You could also run 2 X day to the northern connecting cities to get feed for both banks. They are already running LGA 4X day so it isnt impossible that some other cities could be 2X day at least (morning and pm for connections).

 

[tadjr]

Does FLL have a dedicated Customs/immigration terminal or is each terminal Customs-ready? And does US even have a customs access gate there?

It appears that ALL of the international carriers are showing in terminal 4 concourse H. Bahamasair is in Terminal 3 concourse E with US, but they would be precleared in NAS.

 

[RowUnderDCA]

It appears that ALL of the international carriers are showing in terminal 4 concourse H. Bahamasair is in Terminal 3 concourse E with US, but they would be precleared in NAS.

Is there a FLL website? What's the URL? NEVERMIND http://www.broward.org/airport/

 

[FA Mikey]

FLL international arrivals all go to terminal 4. There is a immagration and customs area. Its very small. AA has service to NAS, PAP, SDQ, and CCS.